Chief Supt Barry South is married with three young children and lives in the Huddersfield area.

He takes over from Chief Supt John Holt, who had been in charge of the division for seven years.

Chief Supt Holt has now moved to the force headquarters in Wakefield as deputy head of territorial operations.

Birstall-born Chief Supt South, 42, has been in charge of the Dewsbury division for two months.

But several high-ranking officers have left the force recently to take up senior posts in other police forces. When he was promoted to chief superintendent he was moved to take charge of a bigger division.

Chief Supt South said: "There was a large number of changes and I was part of that. Huddersfield is one of the biggest police divisions in the country - and with that come big challenges.

"I'm looking forward to moving the division forward and building on the solid foundations that Chief Supt John Holt put in place."

Chief Supt South was educated at Bradford Grammar School and Bradford University, where he gained a degree in organisational studies. He then studied for a master's degree in business administration at Leeds Business School.

He joined West Yorkshire Police 18 years ago as a constable on patrol in Dewsbury and Mirfield. He then joined the CID.

He moved to Pudsey when he was promoted to sergeant and spent some time with the Wakefield-based operations support unit.

After he was promoted to inspector he worked in Huddersfield and Wakefield, before transferring to management support.

In 1998, he was promoted to chief inspector and worked in criminal justice support. While there he was in charge of a £3.5m project looking at ways to improve the criminal justice system in West Yorkshire.

Chief Supt South moved to Leeds city centre in 2000, to become a detective chief inspector.

He was promoted to superintendent there in 2002, before transferring to headquarters management support.

He was then temporarily seconded to work for the Inspectorate of Constabulary.